Covid inquiry told Treasury blocked NHS bed request

Boris Johnson’s government blocked a request to fund another 10,000 hospital beds at the height of the Covid pandemic, the chief executive of NHS England has said.

Amanda Pritchard told the UK Covid-19 Inquiry the decision, made by the Treasury in July 2020, had been “very disappointing”.

Extra beds and staff would have been used to cut waiting lists for planned care and “build resilience” going into a second winter wave of the pandemic, she said.

The government has said it cannot comment while the inquiry is in progress.

Ms Pritchard served as NHS England’s chief operating officer from 2019 until she was promoted to chief executive, in August 2021.

In her evidence, she said a request had been made to the government, for 10,000 extra permanent, staffed hospital beds, in July 2020.

The demand had been based on modelling the spread of the virus, along with the need to deal with other pressures that coming winter and resume more planned, or elective, surgery and other treatments for non-Covid patients.

But the inquiry heard the Treasury and the prime minister’s private office had refused the request, saying they wanted more use made of temporary Nightingale hospitals along with the private sector.

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Source: BBC News, 11 November 2024